Spring means fresh salads...

I was talking to my sister the other day, and she told me about a fantastic salad that she had found on Pinterest that had fresh asparagus, avocado, and cherry tomatoes.  I looked for the recipe and pinned it immediately.  The original recipe is by Something Sweet Something Salty.

The grocery had beautiful asparagus yesterday, so I knew what I had to do.  The three vegetables listed above are the only ingredients except for a simple dressing.  Very easy and so fresh tasting.  We had it tonight with some broiled salmon.

I adjusted the dressing just a smidge and posted the recipe over at What's Cookin' 4 Miles North of Nowhere.  

Dreams...

Lucky me.  I caught the bug.  :(  Yesterday was the worst day.  Today I feel better, but still too fatigued to have yet forced myself into the shower to wash off that broken-fever-sweat smell.  Sorry, just keeping it real here.

Last night I did experience a very nice dream.  One that has stayed with me, and I wanted to write it down.

photo credit: wikipedia

I dreamed of my father-in-law who has been gone for ten years.  I dreamed of he and my mother-in-law visiting us to attend a preschool program of my daughter's.  I dreamed of him driving us in his very large luxury car, and on the way to the program he pulled through a drive-thru to order soft drinks.  I won't go into every boring detail.  Suffice it to say that it was a reminder of where my husband gets his stubborn adherence to the 'old' ways and his lack of ordering skills.  :)

photo credit:  Forgotten Charm at etsy.com

I experienced picking up the receiver on our 1970s model beige desk phone, and on the other end was my best friend from the 5th grade on.  And we had a rather mundane conversation about the phone's malfunction.

Best of all my precious baby girl was magically, enchantingly four years old again.  I opened the car door and let her scramble out of the car without unbuckling a car seat first...'cause, you know, back in the day she never sat in one.  I watched her toddle up the sidewalk and wait at the front door for me to open it.

The amazing thing about each of these dream sequences was the everyday reality of them.  Might be attributed to the high fever I took to bed with me last night.  :)

I think I'll go take a shower now.

The bug is back...

image credit: Bing images...with a few artistic edits by me

This time it has struck Mr. Invincible...he who does not get sick.  Poor baby.  He has been away for over a week, and arrived home last night feeling like he was coming down with something.

I'm not a very good nurse, but I am trying to be kind.  

I force fed him Advil for his headache and Oscillococcinum to "reduce the duration and severity of flu symptoms."  

I'm pushing him to drink fluids.

I served him soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for supper.  

And I've banished him to bed.  

Because I think he needs the rest?  Well, um, sort of.  Because I don't want the constant exposure in case it's a different strain than I had recently?  Well, yes, partly.

But mostly because I can't look at him wearing those flannel pajamas, terry robe, and slippers, all topped off by his knit Texas Rangers stocking cap with the gigantic pom pom on top without laughing my head off!

Spring Break visit 4...

Well here it is Friday...the end of Spring Break week.  Last night Bobby came to stay over.  We went out to dinner, then home for a quiet evening of television.  

Even though there was no regular classes this week, Bobby had theater workshops most of the week, so today he had to be at school by ten.  The boy loves coffee drinks, so I made him an iced caramel coffee to start his day.  Then I dropped him off and that was that.  

The week of visits is done.  When I count my blessings, the biggest one is that we live less than a mile from the kids and get to see them often, and they still want to come and spend one-on-one time with us too.

I'm a happy woman.

Spring Break visit 3...

Not last Christmas, but the one before that...or possibly the one before that even...I found a kit for Ninjabread (gingerbread) cookies.  It came with the cookie mix, the icing mix, the cookie cutters, and the candy decorations.  I had bought it as a gag gift for my son who was taking mixed martial arts at the time.  It has languished in my pantry ever since.

About six months ago, Diego saw the box sitting in my kitchen along with some other things that I was planning on getting rid of.  He begged to have it.  I told him that next time he came to stay over we would bake and decorate the cookies, so I put the kit back into the pantry.  Then we were without a kitchen for awhile, so they have stayed tucked away.

Yesterday, after work, I picked up Diego on my way home.  He was ready to get baking, but I had not slept well the previous night and was exhausted, so I talked him into waiting till today to do the baking.

This afternoon we mixed them up; he rolled out the dough; and then he cut them into their ninja fighter selves, and into the oven they went.

Once they were cooled and ready to decorate, he said he didn't feel good.  No, he hadn't eaten any of the cookie dough, so that wasn't it.  He was starting a new prescription today, so I'm wondering if maybe it wasn't agreeing with him.

I ended up decorating them alone.  I felt terrible, because he had been waiting for so long to do it.  We could use the cookie cutters another time I suppose, but really the odds aren't great.

These little fighting guys crack me up.  It was fun facing them off for the photographs.  :)

These two little round ones were the left over dough, so they got a less 'ninja' decorative treatment, though I just realized I should have made them throwing stars.  :)

No photos of Diego since he was down for the count before I thought about getting the camera out.  When I took him home, I delivered the cookies as well.  I hope he felt well enough later to eat one.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I've been on the waiting list for this ebook from my library for a week or two.  It came available just about the same time I finally finished last week's book (the reading of which was a waste of valuable time).

This one is by the author of Gone Girl.  I'm not very far into it yet since I've worked two days this week and I've been having Spring Break visitors.

Spring Break visit 2...

I phoned Kasey as I was leaving work on Monday, and asked if Chloe wanted to spend the night.  "Her bag is already packed," was the answer.  :)  So I picked her up on my way home.

She had barely been in my possession for ten minutes when we were on our way to get dinner, and she pulled a loose tooth while we were in the car.  I think she did it just to freak me out!  Which it did!  Never been a fan of tooth losing...my own or others'.

 Quick trip back to her house to rinse her mouth out and pick up her tooth fairy pillow.

While we were there, we invited the rest of the family to join us for dinner out at our favorite local Mexican restaurant.  We feasted on Tex-Mex, and Chloe became enamored of telenovelas on the restaurant's TV while her father and brother made up new dialog to accompany the action.  

The remainder of the evening was spent watching yet more telenovelas at home, coloring, and reading, and eating ice cream.  Normal grandma's-house activities...except for the telenovelas...that's a new one.  :)

 This morning she was very excited to find that the tooth fairy had left a $5 bill!  I texted this photo to her mother, who texted back that the tooth fairy at grandma's house set the bar too high.  I re-texted that the tooth fairy at grandma's house only had a $5 bill and a $10 bill, so I think she made the prudent choice.

Then we breakfasted on homemade Belgian waffles with whipped cream...which earned grandma a kiss.  :)

Her daddy came to pick her up earlier than we would have liked, but it gave me a chance to rest up.  A good thing as I have to work again tomorrow. 

Kiss me, I'm Irish!...

I love St. Patrick's Day.  It was always celebrated at our house...because it was my mother's birthday.  :)  I loved finding something shamrock related to gift to her.  Since she collected tea cups, I was ecstatic when I found this Staffordshire cup and saucer...so delicate.

Happy birthday, Mom.  Today would have been her 99th!

And Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Spring Break visit 1...

This week is the kids' Spring Break from school, and I hope to have all the them for a night each.  I have two non-sequential work days scheduled this week, so we are having to plan around them.

Caitlyn started things off.  She came Friday night.  Saturday we went for a special lunch out together.  As we were discussing what she wanted to do after lunch, she suggested going to Hobby Lobby as she was in the mood to make something.  (Awww...a girl after my heart!)  Then she says, "But you've got lots of craft stuff, so we can probably find something at your house for me to make."   Oh, so right she is!

We decided that it had been awhile since we had spent time with her sewing machine.  And since I have acquired lots of precut quilting fabrics lately, I suggested we work on piecing some quilt squares. She did really well.

I think we have just a few more sewing visits ahead of us before we can finish a quilt top.

Thing 1 and Thing 2...

March 2 was Dr. Seuss day.  I love Dr. Seuss.  The elementary school is celebrating just a bit late on this Friday (the 13th no less) by letting the kids wear Seuss-related costumes.

Last weekend Kasey and the girls were sitting at the table working on homework projects, and Kasey said, "We have to work on costumes for Dr. Seuss Day too."  To which Caitlyn responded, "Time to call Grandma."  Funny girl.  :)

I found the headbands (shown above on hanger hooks and in photo below) on Amazon.  Love my Amazon Prime 2-day shipping.

I figured the headbands would be more comfortable for them to wear than wigs, not to mention they were cheaper.  The t-shirts were on sale at Hobby Lobby for less than $3.  They will be wearing them with jeans instead of a head to toe red footy thing.  Grandma believes in practical and affordable, after all.

I had transfer paper for the ink jet printer on hand to print the 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' decals.  Had a little trouble with the printer though.  I changed the black ink cartridge recently, and it doesn't believe that I did.  It has continued to print a striped low-ink pattern.  Tonight I test printed, and aligned the cartridges, and test printed again.  At one point it stopped even letting me print wirelessly at all, and I had to turn the thing off and unplug it and start over.  Grrrr.  Finally got it to print a solid image, albeit more gray than a dark black.  Really aggravating since I had even splurged on the XL size cartridge.  Grrrr again.  

Oh well.  Done is better than perfect.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

This one reminds me of Replay by Ken Grimwood (which I read last summer and coincidentally my son is reading now), but not nearly as engaging.  I am going to hang with this...I really hate to give up on a book.  

I am reading late into the night every night and still seem to make no progress.  I'm reading on my Kindle, and it indicates that I've only read 26%!?  I'm hoping that there are copious author notes or something at the end throwing off the count.  (Just looked on Amazon, and it does indicate that there is a free preview of next book by author at the end...whew!...maybe I'm further through than it appears.)

5 good things...

1.  Blue skies and sunshine.

2.  Budding trees.

3.  Feeling creative.

4.  Laughing SO hard.

5.  A clear schedule.

The Birds...er...Drones...

I love imaginative advertising.

I love Alfred Hitchcock.

I love this new commercial from Audi.

I have not received a new car or any other compensation for sharing this video.  It just made me smile, and I hope you like it too.  And remember...no sudden movements.  :)